Getting to Ouchi-juku Snow Festival 2018

One of the questions I am asked the most frequently is how to reach Ouchi-juku, especially during the annual snow festival held in this historic post-town.

The information about accessing this festival is predominantly written in Japanese, so I thought I would post this blog article about how to access the festival.

Next year’s Snow Festival will be held on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th February 2018.

The festival will feature lots of fun events, such as a soba noodle eating contest, a wood-sawing contest, traditional Japanese theatre performances, a competition for picking up mochi the fastest, the world’s largest dango stick, and – of course – a stunning firework display on Saturday night.

Getting to Ouchi-juku by Bus

There are temporary buses and trains running throughout the snow festival weekend.

On Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th February, buses run between Yunokami Onsen Station to Ouchi-juku. A 1 day pass on the bus costs 1000 yen for adults and 500 yen for kids. Please pay on the day upon riding the bus.

I’ve put together a timetable of the bus times which you can see here below (click on it for a bigger version).